A Comparative Study On The Two Versions Of Hong Lou Meng-a Feminist Translation Perspective

In the long run, translator and translation has been in a marginalized positionin the history of translation studies. With the development of the western feminism,feminist theory has evoked strong response in academic circle. Meanwhile, thefamous movement “culture turn” stimulates the combination of feminism andtranslation, generating the influential feminist translation theory. Actually, feministtranslation theory serves as a powerful theoretical basis for the rebellion againsttraditional social ideology as well as the development of feminism. Feministtranslation theory endeavors to make women appear in the translation versionsfrom a feminist standpoint so as to make them seen.There are a lot of ingenious females in the classic novel Hong Lou Meng,which has been translated into more than twenty languages. Therefore, it is ofgreat significance to explore whether these lovely females are properlydemonstrated in the translation versions and whether readers can see and hearthem. This thesis mainly studies the two complete versions composed by YangXianyi and Gladys Yang as well as David Hawkes and John Minford in a microlevel from the feminist translation perspective. The thesis conducts a systemiccomparative study of the two versions of Hong Lou Meng. Many examples arepicked out to analyze the differences between the original text and translationversions in details. Through the comparison of the two versions, the authorendeavors to find out whether there are differences in representing femininepersonalities between the two versions as well as whether a translatorsubconsciously or consciously upgrades or degrades the female images in thetranslation versions. From the examples, it can be concluded that both of the twoversions have its own merits while Hawkes’s version is more appropriate toreproduce the female characteristics and obviously reflects the feminist translationideology.Studies on the English version of Hong Lou Meng have drawn more and morescholars’ attention at home and abroad since the1970s. However, thorough andcomprehensive discussions on the differences of the two versions from view offeminist translation are sparse, and are therefore are open to further development.The author applies the feminist translation theory to the translation criticism ofHong Lou Meng translation in the hope of promoting the application of feministtranslation theory and enriching the translation study on Hong Lou Meng.